City Year, Inc.
Headquarters
POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT
Evaluation Analyst
Organization’s Mission and Goals
City Year was founded in 1988 on the belief that young people can change the world. The organization unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service, giving them the skills and opportunities to change the world. As tutors, mentors, and role models, these idealistic leaders make a difference in the lives of children, and transform schools and neighborhoods in 18 U.S. locations and in South Africa. This year 1,400 young people are serving on diverse teams in schools and communities.
City Year is committed to engaging community members, corporate partners, and civic leaders in this work, and together we’re building a citizen service movement that is larger than our organization, our lifetime, and ourselves. City Year’s vision is that one day the most commonly asked question of a young person will be, “Where are you going to do your service year?”
Position Overview
City Year is seeking a talented individual to join the evaluation department as an Evaluation Analyst. Reporting to the Director of Evaluation, the Evaluation Analyst will join City Year’s internal evaluation department. The Evaluation Analyst will: 1) coordinate efforts to build our capacity to gather student-level data from schools and school districts for evaluation purposes; and 2) provide technical assistance around these issues and other evaluation activities to City Year sites.
Job Summary
The evaluation department is responsible for creating and maintaining a program evaluation system for City Year that focuses on the overarching goals and objectives of the organization, as well as impact at the individual site level. The purpose of the research and evaluation unit is to: 1) document effective program outcomes, indicators, and practices, and 2) evaluate progress with quantitative and qualitative data for systematic internal distribution and learning.
City Year has developed a model for school service called Whole School, Whole Child (WSWC), rooted in the organization’s 20 years of school-based experience. Developed in collaboration with leading education scholars from the American Institute for Research, Harvard School of Education, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Pittsburgh, WSWC builds on the unique value City Year corps members bring to a school as a diverse group of tutors, mentors and role models committed to creating a positive climate for learning. City Year corps members will be focusing their efforts to improve attendance rates, behavior, and course performance via their work with individual students and their efforts to improve school climate. Gaining access to student data is critical to our evaluation of Whole School, Whole Child program. Due to the highly localized nature of public school districts and increasing pressure to ensure student data is protected, the ability to get key evaluation data is a risk of evaluating the effectiveness of WSWC. To measure the impact of this program, City Year needs to: a) build on and extend our partnerships with schools and school districts; b) obtain student-level data on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis; and c) develop and implement an on-line knowledge management system.
Responsibilities
• Analysis. Compile and analyze site-level and school district information from various data sources and interviews regarding requirements, barriers, and successful strategies for obtaining student-level data and dealing with confidentiality and IRB issues. Share findings with the Evaluation Department and other senior team members, and work cooperatively with leadership and sites to disseminate information and develop recommendations, strategies, and tools.
• Relationship Building and Coordination. Work closely with both central districts and individual school principals and teachers to get buy-in for City Year’s evaluation strategy. With the Director of Evaluation, assist in developing a plan of approach to each school district and school to obtain data. While City Year has demonstrated success in securing school district support in select markets, the organization will focus on developing stronger partnerships with every city in which it serves. The Evaluation Analyst will serve as a liaison and strategist in working with sites to build and maintain relationships with school districts and key personnel.
• Documentation, Training, and Technical Assistance. Assist Evaluation Department efforts to foster increased evaluation sophistication among site staff (to cultivate a robust evaluation culture and ensure increased data integrity and fidelity). Support professional education of site staff by providing technical assistance, coaching, and training around partnerships with tools and obtaining and collecting data. Work with other research and evaluation staff to develop and carry out information dissemination strategies and to help sites use data on an ongoing basis for both service delivery and external reporting needs.
• Reporting. Broadly assist in preparing reports, presentations and graphs for different internal and external audiences; present and interpret information as needed.
Qualifications
• Bachelor or Master’s level degree in education, social sciences, or related field.
• At least 4 years of relevant professional experience. Experience in navigating government and/or school systems preferred.
• Experience in providing technical assistance and training to teachers or providers in related settings in the field.
• Knowledge of and experience with statistics, with knowledge through intermediate level (descriptive statistics, scaling and reliability, and inferential statistics, including, regression, anova, t-tests).
• Knowledge of and experience with qualitative and quantitative data management systems including SPSS (or similar software) and Excel. Comfortable with MS Office suite of software products, e.g. Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook. Willingness to learn new systems.
• Good organizational skills and ability to communicate with others. Some experience supervising staff preferred.
• Ability to work well independently and in a collaborative team environment.
• Interest in and commitment to community service for young adults.
Competitive salary and benefits.
Qualified applicants should send a resume, cover letter, and references to:
Evaluation Analyst Search
Attn: Danielle McNeil-Speller, Staff Recruitment Manager
City Year Headquarters
287 Columbus Ave.
Boston, MA 02116
Fax: 617-927-2687
Email: cyjobs@cityyear.org
